All Blog Posts Tagged 'settlement' (3)

After many years of mediating litigated cases, I find that several threads continually recur. Among the most pervasive are the following:



· Attorneys believe that their analysis of the case is superior to that of their opponent

· Parties believe that the opposing party is insincere in his/her/its position

· Attorneys believe that the opposing witnesses will be surprised by certain evidence when directly confronted by it at trial

· Attorneys believe that they will be… Continue

In mediating commercial disputes, once all of the frills are striped away, the dispute is very typically about money. The money can evince itself in a number of ways: one side paying the other cash; one side paying the other in specific performance; one side paying the other by refraining from competing, and so foregoing potential income, and so on. But, when the dust clears, the outcome is generally that money either does or doesn't change hands.



A second characteristic of such… Continue

A settlement is meaningless if it the parties don't respect it. Parties who don't respect settlements simply see breach as another cost of doing business, accepting further litigation if they see the overall result to be profitable. An all too common example may occur when a large small vendor is owed money by a large retailer. In a typical scenario, the vendor needs prompt payment to remain healthy and a continuous flow of sales and payments to remain in business. Knowing this, the vendor may… Continue